An old pro? Dad delivers son on US-23; 10 years ago he delivered his own brother

Alan Warren, The Ann Arbor News Melissa Stanick holds newborn Christopher as her fiance, Jason Keene, kisses his head on Sunday in their home. Holding Christopher's hand is big brother Ben. The couple delivered the baby by themselves last Friday on the side of US-23 last Friday on the way to the hospital in Ann Arbor.

Jason Keene knows most women give birth in the hospital.

But now that he's delivered his newborn son on US-23 - 10 years after he delivered his baby brother at home - he's beginning to wonder.

"The odds of this are crazy," said Keene, 24, who runs a lawn care service in Dundee. "It blows my mind that this would happen twice."

Keene's fiancee, Melissa Stanick, was scheduled to be induced Friday night at the University of Michigan Women's Hospital. But she went into labor at about 2:45 a.m. that day. She called the hospital and was told to wait 45 minutes to see if the contractions progressed.

They did. So Keene helped Stanick into the car and headed north on US-23 toward Ann Arbor.

When the contractions quickly got stronger, Keene called 911 and learned it would take at least 10 minutes for an ambulance to get there.

The couple decided to keep driving. But about two minutes later, Stanick's water broke.

As he called 911 again, Keene pulled to the side of the expressway somewhere between Willis Road and Michigan Avenue. Within moments, the baby's head appeared - and with instructions from the 911 operator, Keene delivered his first child, a 7-pound, 15-ounce, 21.5-inch boy named Christopher Allen.

It was 5:08 a.m. on 8-8-08.

"At first I was all right, but when he came out, I almost lost it," said Keene, who tied the umbilical cord. "They were saying, 'Be calm, keep your focus.'"

Stanick, who turns 27 today, said she wondered later what the birth certificate would say about the place of birth.

"Is it going to be U-M or US-23?," said Stanick, also mother to a son, Ben, who'll be 6 on Friday.

Within a couple minutes of Christopher's arrival, an ambulance arrived and the trained professionals took over. Mother and baby were taken via ambulance to U-M while Stanick's suitcase and Keene followed in the car.

By then, Keene couldn't help but recall another memorable summer night 10 years earlier.

His mother, Michelle Keene, suddenly went into labor in the middle of the night at their home on Plank Road outside Milan. Her husband - Jason Keene's stepfather - was at work, so she called an ambulance.

Jason's older brother, Brian, 15, rushed into his bedroom and yelled: "Mom's having a baby!" Then Brian escaped back into his own room, leaving it up to Jason.

"All I remember was, I got up, went in her bedroom and she was having contractions," Keene said. "Then my younger brother came out, and I caught him. He was purple and not breathing because the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck."

Keene unwrapped the cord around baby Trevor's neck, and paramedics arrived to take it from there.

"I told Jason today he should have been an obstetrician," said Letha Keene of Milan, who is Michelle Keene's stepmother.

Letha Keene said the whole family finds it all very amusing.

"Most are saying he should go to school for 12 more years and become a doctor," she said. "They're all really excited about this baby."

Although everything turned out fine, a side-of-the-highway birth wasn't what the couple had in mind. In fact, Keene was relieved the birth was going to be induced so there wouldn't be any surprises.

"I told my fiancee, 'I'm glad we're going to be induced, because I don't want to go flying down the highway to the hospital,'" Keene said. "And sure enough ..."